08 29 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTScientists call for more research on the temporal and lasting effects of nuclear fallout on plants and animals in proximity to Japan’s Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station where changes at the molecular level were found within three days of the March 11, 2011, meltdown.

08 29 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTON THIS DAY in 1498, Portuguese navigator and explorer Vasco da Gama leaves Calicut, India, to begin his return voyage to Lisbon, becoming the first European to complete a voyage by sea from Europe to India; on this day in 1949, the Soviet Union successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon with the help of classified U.S. data supplied by Manhattan Project physicist Klaus Fuchs.

08 29 2014Bent Spear (Outtake)1:42ON THIS DAY in 2007, United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: Six U.S, cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, leaving the weapons exposed and vulnerable for a day and a half. Stuff happens.

08 27 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTRutland Herald content editor Rich Alcott uploads data direct to your head: On this day in 410 CE, Visigoths sack Rome and it isn't the first time, either; in 1859, Titusville, Pa., the first commercially viable oil well comes in; in 1918, the only World War I battle fought on U.S. soil in Nogales, Ariz.; in 1890, Dadaist photographer and painter Man Ray born in Philadelphia; Salvador Dali on the destructive nature of surrealism.

08 27 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCAST Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing that pollute ground water and i the air we breath come under scrutiny by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of the Pacific, who find at least eight fracking chemicals toxic to mammals.

08 26 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCAST The craze for Omega-3 fatty acids as a dietary supplement in its most popular form, fish oil, has led to depletion of fish stocks in oceans throughout the world. Is this the beginning of the total collapse of global fisheries because of over consumption?

08 25 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTOn this day in 1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrates his telescope to Venetian lawmakers; during the same year, the Spanish Inquisition begins Basque witch trials, Henry Hudson sets sail from Amsterdam to North America, William Shakespeare’s sonnets are published, ‘Three Blind Mice’ published in London.

08 25 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCAST Forests around Chernobyl, even though dead from massive irradiation after the record-holding nuclear accident 30 years ago, still have not even begun to decompose, natural balance disrupted at microbial level.

08 15 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTOn this day in 1915, the New York World breaks the great phenol plot scandal, Thomas Edison diverts chemical from war production to help German pharmaceutical company, Bayer, make more aspirin; on this day in 1935, Will Rogers and Wiley Post die in Point Barrow, Alaska, plane crash.

08 14 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTClimatologists might not know as much about El Nino as they thought they knew. New studies show 10,000 years ago, El Nino was active, and polar ice sheets were rapidly melting — just like today.

08 13 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCAST California’s sequoias face a daunting future coping with drought and the West's changing climate as plant biologists seek to preserve some of the oldest living trees on the American continent.

08 12 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTArchaeological researchers from La Plata Museum in Argentina find fossils of penguins that lived 40 million years ago and were tall enough to play in NBA.

08 11 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTNo matter what you might have heard, Hedy Lamarr did not invent the Internet; John Lennon stirs up trouble in the South when he says Beatles are more popular than the Jesus; President Ronald Reagan announces that the U.S. will begin bombing Russia in five minutes. Say what?

08 11 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTFlorida university researcher predicts more and more intense tornado action in the near weather future. Contrary to Hollawood imagery, don't expect so much sucking up of heavy equipment, but rolling buses are a documented happenstance, all in today’s minute.

08 08 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTFirst cross-country road trip with a woman driver arrived this day in 1909 in San Francisco, 59 days after leaving New York, with Alice Huyler Ramsey at the wheel; last recorded lynching in the northern states was on this day in 1930; Richard Milhous Nixon resigned the presidency 40 years ago on this day.08 08 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTDuke University researchers links the rise of civilization beginning 50,000 years ago to a diminution in male production of the hormone testosterone, leading to cooperation, art, culture. Who knew?

08 06 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTOn this day in 1926, Gertrude Ederle sets a world record and becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, in 1930 on this day, Judge Joseph Force Crater emerges from a supper club, steps into a taxi cab and disappears; U.S. on this day drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.08 06 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCAST Duke University researchers links the rise of civilization beginning 50,000 years ago to a diminution in male production of the hormone testosterone, leading to cooperation, art, culture. Who knew?

08 04 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCAST On this day in 1969, Henry Kissinger meets Xuan Thuy in a Paris apartment for secret talks to bring a conclusion to the war in Vietnam, on this day in 1975, the terrorist Japanese Red Army takes 53 hostages in Kuala Lumpur, demanding Japan government release 5 imprisoned JRA members.08 04 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTIn the Beaufort Sea at the top of the world, sea ice breaks up and waves 16 feet high reported for the first time in known history.

08 01 2014 Richard’s Poor AlmanackAUDIO PODCASTWorkers on this day in 1984 in a Cheshire, England, peat bog find well-preserved human remains at least 2,000 years dead, born this day in 1843, Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of the president, who manages to be present at three presidential assassinations. Polly Berrien Berends on the disturbing but benign influence of television programming.08 01 2014Today’s Weather MinuteAUDIO PODCASTA fiery pit nicknamed the 'Gate of Hell' in the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan has been burning for 40 years.